Advent

For those of you who don't know, some churches prepare for the coming of Christmas (and for the Second Coming) in a special way with four weeks of readings from the Old Testament about the expected Messiah and readings from the New Testament about the coming of God's riegn at the end of time. This season is called Advent -- from the Latin word adventus, which means coming. A complaint one often hears in these groups is that Advent -- the time to reflect and prepare -- has disappeared in the swirl and stress of holiday shopping. Actually, the craziness starts well before Advent; some stores around here had Christmas tree ornaments for sale back in September. And we all see the news reports about how retailers are desperately pushing Christmas sales earlier and earlier because of the hard economic times.

A friend of mine in Minnesota who is preparing to become a Lutheran minister posted this video about a different approach to preparing and celebrating. Click on the arrow and see.